Kitchen RO unit?

[dkspftw]

Anybody here run an RO unit that you'd normally hook up to a sink for drinking water, rather than one looped into a drip (aquarium) system? I'm looking for something that could be connected to my kitchen sink but would have its own little faucet so that I can still get normal water out of the tap. Would be especially nice if it produces the stuff at a fast rate (at least 5/gal a day) and maybe has some storage capacity to hold some of the water it's made.

Anybody have a recommendation? I know almost nothing about this stuff! Tryna hook it up for my mister.

[dkspftw]

Anybody? Thanks!

[bcr229]

We use a British Berkfeld "Big Berkey" gravity filter rather than an RO setup for our snake drinking water, fish tank water, and the coffee maker (prioritized in that order LOL). Our tap water is hard as a rock (lime) and even with a softener our faucets still have some buildup.

The storage tank holds about 2 gallons but you could always use cleaned plastic bottles to hold more if you need more on hand. If I constantly draw/refill it over the day I could get 8-10 gals per day from it.

They're a bit pricey - $200+ - but they do 10,000 gallons and if you are only using it to get the minerals and chemicals out of your tap water you can clean and reuse the ceramic filters. Over time it's certainly cheaper than buying bottled water.

[dkspftw]

We use a British Berkfeld "Big Berkey" gravity filter rather than an RO setup for our snake drinking water, fish tank water, and the coffee maker (prioritized in that order LOL). Our tap water is hard as a rock (lime) and even with a softener our faucets still have some buildup.

The storage tank holds about 2 gallons but you could always use cleaned plastic bottles to hold more if you need more on hand. If I constantly draw/refill it over the day I could get 8-10 gals per day from it.

They're a bit pricey - $200+ - but they do 10,000 gallons and if you are only using it to get the minerals and chemicals out of your tap water you can clean and reuse the ceramic filters. Over time it's certainly cheaper than buying bottled water.

I'll definitely look into it, but not sure about the differences between this and RO, which is what mistkings recommends. And 200 isn't a big deal, some of the units I was looking at were like 600+, they were just sort of nice kitchen appliances, whereas I care less for aesthetics and more for functionality.

[Pythonfriend]

i know about it from aquaristics.


True reverse osmosis (thats what RO stands for, RO is quite a meaningless 2-letter abbreviation, damn i hate those), anyway, true reverse osmosis requires pressure. If your water supply comes with enough pressure, you can hook up a reverse osmosis device to that, otherwise you need a pump that delivers high pressure at very low flow rate.

Typically they have 3 stages: stage 1 is just a very fine filter to keep particles out, stage 2 is an active charcoal filter that will remove most chemicals, stage 3 contains the osmosis membrane which holds back salts, ions, and any large molecules. On the pressurized side of stage 3, the bad stuff concentrates, so we have two designs: One has a valve or some kind of system that allows you to withdraw wastewater from stage 3 during operation, the other would be that you need to open and wash stage 3 regularly. Sometimes the filters need changing.


A gravity filter cannot run with a membrane necessary for true reverse osmosis, without enough pressure these membranes are virtually waterproof. If you put salt water on one side and purified water on the other, they will do osmosis instead of reverse osmosis and pump the pure water into the salt water. It takes pressure to force them into reverse mode. So, gravity filters cannot remove ions or salts, but gravity filter systems can remove particles, reactive chemicals, fat-soluble chemicals, and if they are bioactive also fertilizer remnants.


For reptiles or other pets, a normal filter or gravity filter should typically be enough.

Reverse osmosis is typically overkill, except for valuable and sensitive fish, if your fish will only breed at a water hardness that is one order of magnitude lower than what you can otherwise get you have no other choice. Even in aquaristics its quite high-end, up there with coral reef aquariums. You need it if your water really has a problem with too much salt or any toxic ions, like copper or uranium or mercury, or serious chemical pollution. Normal filters can remove lots of chemicals on their own, just a few chemicals as well as salt go through.

Unless you have a known issue with your water, or too much salt in your water, regular filters should do the job just fine. But then, you can get a 3-stage reverse osmosis device to hook up to your pressurized cold water supply that produces a few gallons per day for maybe 200 dollars, if you look for high-end aquaristics supply.


Then, one issue with osmosis water i need to mention: If done properly, it is so low in ions that its PH-value becomes unstable. Water hardness stabilizes the ph-value (acidity) of the water. Basically just by being unusually pure, it tastes like crap, it tastes weird. So you need to add a bit of the right product, carbonates and other ions and minerals, then its perfect. again, available in high-end aquaristics supply, in aquaristics when people use osmosis water that is too pure, the instability in acidity can have disastrous effects. With regular filters you dont have that problem because ions go through.


example image of a nice small unit from a german company:

[dkspftw]

Wow, thank you. I just learned a bunch! Although this is for a mister, I'm actually going to use normal tap primed for my tank water. So this isn't exactly a water stability issue, although it'd be nice if it drank well. The reviews on the below seem to say it does.

Any thoughts on this?

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-4-...tem-75gpd.html

I'd consider the 5 stage one, but I heard elsewhere that RO/DI water is so pure it can actually erode the mister heads, or something.